THE SUCCESSOR

The GOP’s Hidden Plan for a Post-Trump America-A Paid-Subscriber-Only Jack Hopkins Deep Dive

THE SUCCESSOR

The GOP’s Hidden Plan for a Post-Trump America-A Paid-Subscriber-Only Jack Hopkins Deep Dive

The Jack Hopkins Now Newsletter #653: Wednesday, November 19th, 2025.

READ THIS IN A QUIET ROOM.

What I’m about to walk you through is not a prediction.
It’s not a rumor.
It’s not the kind of barstool chatter you hear from political junkies or Twitter addicts.

This is the architecture of the operation…the GOP has already begun.

It is the calm…organized…behind-the-scenes succession plan the Republican power structure has been forced to build…

…because their king is becoming too radioactive to protect.

And while the public is still distracted by Trump’s meltdowns…feuds…rallies…rants…polls…posts…and attacks…

…the real power players in the Republican ecosystem…donors…strategists…media executives…and legal shields…are quietly doing what authoritarian movements always do…when their leader becomes more expensive to defend than to discard:

They pick a successor.
They build the escape hatch.
They prepare to feed the king to the wolves.

Today…for the first time…I’m giving you the name.

Not a theory.
Not a meme.
Not an easy guess.

The actual figure the GOP is grooming in the shadows.

And once you understand who it is…and why it’s him…every strange headline of the last three months…will snap into place like a rifle bolt.

So let’s start with the foundational rule.

The rule every authoritarian movement lives by…whether they admit it or not:

RULE #1: Authoritarian Movements Always Prepare A Successor

Trump isn’t stupid.
Dangerous? Yes.
Chaotic? Extremely.
Narcissistic? Pathologically.

But stupid?
No.

He knows what’s coming.
He can smell the shift in the air.
He can feel the tremors under his feet.

He knows the party that once worshipped him…is quietly…carefully…systematically preparing the conditions…under which they can walk away from him…and survive.

But here’s what the base doesn’t know:

The GOP already has their replacement identified.
Already vetted.
Already modeled.
Already tested.
Already tentatively approved by the only three groups that matter:
donors…operatives…and Fox News.

And the moment Trump becomes politically irrecoverable…
whether because of a scandal…a collapse…a file…a leak…or a catalyst event…

…their successor will already be standing in the wings…polished…rehearsed…and wrapped in a donor-friendly bow.

So let’s talk about who it is.

And why he’s far more strategically dangerous than Trump ever was.